? The king was within a few
paces of her now. There was a smile upon his lips, and in that smile
she saw the final confirmation of her fears. When Leopold of Lutha
smiled his upper lip curved just a trifle into a shadow of a sneer.
It was a trivial characteristic that Barney Custer did not share in
common with the king.

Half mad with terror, the girl seized upon the only subterfuge which
seemed at all likely to succeed. It would, at least, give her a
slight reprieve--a little time in which to think, and possibly find
an avenue from her predicament.

She staggered forward a step, clapped her two hands above her heart,
and reeled as though to fall. Butzow, who had been watching her
narrowly, sprang forward and caught her in his arms, where she lay
limp with closed eyes as though in a dead faint. The king ran
forward. The people craned their necks. A sudden burst of
exclamations rose throughout the cathedral, and then Lieutenant
Butzow, shouldering his way past the chancel, carried the Princess
Emma to a little anteroom off the east transept. Behind him walked
the king, the bishop, and Prince Ludwig.

XV

MAENCK BLUNDERS

After a hurried breakfast Peter of Blentz and Captain Ernst Maenck
left the castle of Blentz. Prince Peter rode north toward the
frontier, Austria, and safety, Captain Maenck rode south toward
Lustadt. Neither knew that general orders had been issued to
soldiery and gendarmerie of Lutha to capture them dead or alive. So
Prince Peter rode carelessly; but Captain Maenck, because of the
nature of his business and the proximity of enemies about Lustadt,
proceeded with circumspection.

Prince Peter was arrested at Tafelberg, and, though he stormed and
raged and threatened, he was immediately packed off under heavy
guard back toward Lustadt.

Captain Ernst Maenck was more fortunate. He reached the capital of
Lutha in safety, though he had to hide on several occasions from
detachments of troops moving toward the north. Once within the city
he rode rapidly to the house of a friend. Here he learned that which
set him into a fine state of excitement and profanity. The king and
the Princess Emma von der Tann were to be wed that very afternoon!
It lacked but half an hour to four o'clock.

Maenck grabbed his cap and dashed from the house before his
astonished friend could ask a single question. He hurried straight
toward the cathedral. The king had just arrived, and entered when
Maenck came up, br